Summary
Highlights
New methods and tools in England sped up farming, producing more food with fewer workers. This agricultural revolution led to increased food availability, fewer starvation deaths, and the creation of vaccines, which significantly reduced disease-related mortality. The population of England grew from 6 to 8 million, creating a surplus of unemployed farmers and a 'liberation of labor'.
Before the 18th century, everything was handmade, leading to low production, small cities, and widespread issues like war, disease, and hunger. The average lifespan was 35, limiting population growth, a phenomenon known as the demographic trap. European countries, especially England, held an advantageous position due to colonization.
England's flourishing cotton industry, supplied by its former colony the United States (which had a slave cotton industry), led to a surge in handmade cotton goods production. The 'putting out system,' a form of remote work where merchants supplied materials to home-based workers, was common. However, slow manual production spurred inventions like James Hargraves' spinning jenny (1764) and Edmund Cartwright's power loom (1787), transforming the textile industry and marking the start of the Industrial Revolution.
England's patent laws encouraged invention. James Watt significantly improved the steam engine in 1769 (building on Thomas Newcomen's 1712 design), enabling industrial-scale manufacturing. Coal became the primary energy source. Merchants consolidated workers and machines into factories, leading to faster, cheaper production, lower prices, and increased consumer purchasing power.
The need for faster transportation led to the invention of the steam railway in 1825. Railways expanded rapidly, transporting goods, mail, and people. This led to mass migration to cities for factory work, fostering an industrial economy and new social classes: the wealthy industrial middle class (factory owners) and the working industrial working class or proletariat (factory laborers).
Factory work was demanding, with 14-hour shifts, poor conditions, and strict rules. Wages were low and varied by gender and age. Rapid, uncontrolled urban growth led to pollution, poor living conditions, and deep poverty for workers, giving rise to 'the social question.' Workers formed unions and protested, while intellectuals developed theories like socialism, communism, and anarchism. The British government introduced the Factory Act, reducing children's working hours.
By the late 18th century, England led the Industrial Revolution. Other European countries, starting with Belgium, then Germany, the Netherlands, France, and Switzerland, soon followed suit, rapidly industrializing and building railroads. England attempted to keep its technological advancements secret, but Samuel Slater smuggled industrial knowledge to the United States in 1789, initiating the American Industrial Revolution. The invention of the steamboat (1807) further globalized trade, eventually bringing industrialization to Japan.
From 1760-1840, the first Industrial Revolution occurred. The second, from 1850-1914, was characterized by new innovations like electricity, pioneered by figures like Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison. Major advancements included the rise of the steel and oil industries, the invention of the automobile (Karl Benz), the telephone, radio, light bulb, and airplane, among others, ultimately leading to World War I. This era transformed society from handmade goods to mass production, with significant impacts on urban development and global interconnectedness.